Biology Education Online -- An Interactive Electronic Journal

Biology Education Online is a peer-reviewed, online journal for teaching and learning science. The goal is to bring together developers and users of digital resources for biology education that span the range from kindergarten through high school, youth and adults in colleges and universities, and life-long learners interested in biology. Using a two-tiered, on-line peer-review system, Biology Education Online is developing and publishng to the web a collection of new, interactive, participatory resources that exemplify the multimedia capabilities inherent in the Internet for the advancement of teaching and learning science, consistent with the goals and standards inherent in the National Science Education Standards and the AAAS Benchmarks for Science Literacy.

But Biology Education Online is much more than a collection of reviewed digital resources. The interactive online journal itself is both a teaching and learning resource. The unique features of a two-tiered interactive review process with message boards attached to each posted resource allows Biology Education Online to be used in professional development of new and current teachers as well a nursery incubator for developers and potential developers of new materials. For example, instructors in teacher preparation programs can incorporate the ongoing review process for Biology Education Online materials as part of the development of evaluative and analytic skills in their students. In this way, beginning teachers not only have a collection of highly peer-reviewed materials to use in developing their teaching strategies and portfolios, they also participate in the review process and learn how to critically evaluate teaching materials. Biology Education Online melds together users and providers.

The development process for materials and the resources themselves promotes easy use by the community and encourage users to become developers by creating a nursery incubator where users can present, test, revise and publish new ideas and material in a non-threatening community setting. As a peer-reviewed online journal, Biology Education Online is being developed through an iterative process that requires two levels of online, interactive review prior to publishing to the formal Web site. Biology Education Online creates a synergy between a strong, well-developed audience for digital teaching and learning resources and a proven operational program for delivering those resources. The National Association of Biology Teachers and Access Excellence are collaborating in this endeavor.

A draft of the criteria for materials to be entered into the BEOn Collection of the National Science Digital Library has been developed based on input received from participants at the National Association of Biology Teachers annual conference, October 25-28, 2000. These criteria will be posted here for review and comment in mid-January 2001. Please visit this site after January 15 to provide your input to the proposed criteria and review process. We expect the first materials for review to be posted in early February 2001.